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Ogier: My toughest Monte yet

The changeable weather conditions at Rallye Monte-Carlo were the toughest in recent memory, according to rally winner Sébastien Ogier.

The reigning world champion got his title defence off to a successful start on Monte-Carlo's twisty asphalt stages as his 58.3sec advantage at the top of the leaderboard was enough to see off a determined charge from Toyota's Ott Tänak.

But the road to Ogier's fifth consecutive Rallye Monte-Carlo win wasn't straightforward as fiercely changeable weather conditions played havoc with tyre strategies and reduced grip to an absolute minimum on some stages.

The conditions caught out the usually cool-headed Ogier on a couple of occasions - most notably as he spun on Thursday night and then beached his Ford Fiesta in a ditch on Friday's penultimate stage. Luckily, he was delayed less than his rivals as they also encountered time-sapping trouble on the ice and snow-covered stages.

"We always face tough conditions at Rallye Monte-Carlo but this year they were really extreme. I don't think I've ever struggled so much with the tyre choices," the M-Sport Ford World Rally Team driver admitted. "It was never super clear with the conditions changing all the time.

"It was almost impossible to do the perfect weekend and we did mistakes. It's good that we managed to do less mistakes that the others and that ours were small mistakes with small consequences."

One of the most treacherous stages of the rally was SS9, the snow-covered 29.16km pass through Agnières-en-Dévoluy - Corps 1 on Saturday morning.

Although he was only second fastest, 22.2sec behind the impressive Andreas Mikkelsen, Ogier managed to add more than a minute to his advantage over Tänak as his Fiesta cautiously slipped and slid through the speed test. But the need to balance speed with caution was a constant battle.

Ogier reflected: "It was definitely one of the hardest stages of my career. It was hard to explain how tough - I wasn't complaining - but it was not enjoyable to drive. It was about surviving."

"You come to the finish with a big relief and you're super-happy crossing the line, but you have no idea if you are one minute slower or faster. It would have been super-easy to fall out of position."

Ogier's 2018 Rallye Monte-Carlo win has given him an early eight-point advantage at the top of the drivers' championship, while his M-Sport Ford World Rally Team jointly lead the race for the manufacturers' title with Toyota Gazoo Racing - both teams having scored 33 points.

Zdroj: wrc.com